Malden High School Students Participate in New Voices: Massachusetts Young Playwrighting Project

Whiz Kids: Malden High School drama students

Whiz Kids' Accomplishment: Workshopped with a professional playwright from Boston University.

Whiz Kids' Key to Awesomeness:

[Editor's note: The following was provided by Malden High School.]

It seems that when professional theatre artists go to work on a brand new script written by a teenager, something magical tends to occur. For the professionals, working at the festival is a chance to rejuvenate to perform with the kind of dedication and abandon that reminds many of them why they chose to work in theatre in the first place.

For the audience, it is a rare look into the hearts and minds of young people, a perspective on youth culture unavailable when filtered through the adult-run media. For the playwrights, production at the festival may well be the first time their work has been taken seriously by professionals. Among their peers, featured playwrights take on a greater status, and their writing receives the kind of attention normally showered upon star athletes.

For the past two months, nine Malden High School drama students have been working with professional playwright Steve Barkhimer from Boston University in developing ten-minute plays. This is the fourth year MHS has participated in this program.

Each year, two original plays are selected from each participating schools to be work shopped at BU Playwright's Theater. On April 7, senior Jenna Delaney (for the third year) and senior Brittany Foley will have their original plays work shopped by professional directors and actors. Junior Jaclyn Scales and senior Sheila Teixeira's play will be given a staged reading.

Foley’s play is a comedy about a young girl trying to get into college and Delaney’s play is a farce dealing with mobsters and a secret cookie recipe.